BHUBANESWAR: Rajya Sabha member and president of Odisha Jana Morcha Pyari Mohan Mohapatra on Saturday reiterated his demand for a CBI probe into the multi-crore chit fund scam.

Taking strong exception to ongoing investigation by different wings of the State police, Mohapatra told reporters that the chit fund scam has inter-state ramification. The State police do not have the expertise to probe into economic offence of such a magnitude. The case should be handed over to CBI for an impartial inquiry, he said.

While lakhs of poor depositors of the state are crying for refund of their deposits in the ponzi firms, the State Government has handed over the case to multiple agencies which are not competent to probe into a financial scam involving thousands of crores.

The Government is trying to protect the scamsters which is evident from its affidavit filed in the Supreme Court. While media reports point at involvement of large number of ruling party members in the scam, the Government affidavit is silent on the issue.

Recently, the Jan Morcha chief accused Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik of protecting controversial Artha Tatwa (AT) Group chief Pradeep Sethy. He had also alleged that the Chief Minister was getting benefits from Sethy through party MLA from Gopalpur Pradeep Panigrahi, who is said to have close links with Sethy.

Sethy belongs to Hinjili, the Assembly constituency of the Chief Minister.

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